Teacher/Student Pairs:
- Michelle Shipley / Patrick Lee – Ruston High School, Ruston
- Jennifer Mueller / Caleb Stroman – Northshore High School, Slidell
- Doña Robinson / Zahn Thomas - Port Barre High School, Port Barre
- Joyce Landry / Kay Robinson - West Feliciana High School, St. Francisville
- Janell Coffman / Ben Mahoney - Bolton HS, Alexandria
- Valerie Milligan / Shadreka Haynes - Woodlawn High School, Baton Rouge
Laboratories that were made available to accommodate a teacher/student pair include the following:
- Richard Cooper, Department of Veterinary Science
- Robert Godke / Richard Denniston, Department of Animal Science and Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory, St. Gabriel
- Jim Oard, Department of Agronomy
- William Hansel, Pennington Biomedical Research Center
- Roy Martin, Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Research Projects
Joyce Landry/Kay Robinson (Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory)
This group worked on several projects at the Embryo Biotechnology Lab. Included was a horse project in which they palpated horses to determine pregnancy and stage of pregnancy, recovery of oocytes, and administering regimen. They also worked with tissue cultures in which they obtained sheep tissues and processed them by freezing, cleansing, separating, and growing and counting cells. The high school pair also constructed micro tools and used them for In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) procedures, embryo transfers, and nuclear transfers. They investigated optimal methods of cryopreservation of sheep epidermal and dermal cells and also worked with cows, i.e., palpated, used sonograms to view if pregnant, prepared straws to freeze bovine oocytes, and prepared for IVF. To bolster their understanding of biotechnology they attended Dr. Godke’s lectures.
Janell Coffman / Ben Mahoney (Oard Lab)
Janell and Ben performed PCR using a microsatellite marker on rice DNA to test for polymorphisms as part of a project to identify markers that can be used in marker assisted selection.
Janell Coffman/ Ben Mahoney (Cooper Lab)
After completing the rice project, Janell and Ben moved to Dr. Cooper’s lab where they tested a vector for its ability to be transfected into donkey dermal cells.
Jennifer Mueller/ Caleb Stroman (Embryo Lab)
This group worked with goats, cows, and horses. They performed in vitro fertilization, tissue culture, moved oocytes, froze embryos, and assisted with graduate student projects. This included doing embryo transfers, embryo flushing, aspirations, freeze branding, vetrification, nuclear transfer, exploration of alligator reproductive tract, pregnancy checks, and heat checks. In addition, Jennifer and Caleb conducted a study to determine optimal media for the growth of goat fibroblasts in culture.
Michelle Shipley/ Patrick Lee (Hansel Lab)
Michelle and Patrick, working in the Hansel Lab, performed a project to produce an enzyme immunoassay for lytic peptide bound to leutinizing hormone in the serum. This included labeling the protein with peroxidase, performing protein assays, and finally, the ELISA assay.
Doña Robinson/Zahn Thomas (Cooper Lab)
Doña and Zahn performed a project in which the ultimate goal was to determine if the construction of a transfection vector was successful. This included isolating and purifying plasmid DNA, gel electrophoresis, DNA extraction from agarose gels, PCR, DNA quantification from gel electrophoresis, construction of vectors following restriction enzyme digestion, PCR, and joining fragments using ligase enzyme. In addition, they maintained bacterial cultures in liquid and solid media.
Valerie Milligan /Shadreka Haynes (Martin Lab)
This group performed a project to construct a genotyping assay on Zucker rats that differentiated obese from the wildtype genotype. They performed PCR using primers specifically constructed to differentiate the two genotypes and then separated them by gel electrophoresis. The experiment was successful, resulting in a method which could distinguish these genotypes.
Research Review and Awards Ceremony
The Summer Program culminated in the Research Review and Awards Ceremony which was held Thursday, August 1, at the LSU AgCenter Mini-Farm. Following a catered lunch, Dr.’s William Brown and William Hansel addressed the students and teachers and commended them for their outstanding work during the session. The students and teachers then presented their work to an assembly of LSU AgCenter faculty and their peers. Following this, each pair was awarded a framed certificate demonstrating successful completion of the program.
“This experience has given me a wealth of knowledge and has provided me with a solid background from which I can modify my lessons on genetics and biotechnology. Though I have already incorporated some biotech into my teaching, this has answered so many questions that I have had and have not had answered previously. It was nice to get the "real scoop" from the experts in the field.” - BEST High School Teacher
“This experience has helped me narrow down my choices for a career. By getting a hands-on experience in this program, I now know that my career will be in science.” - BEST High School Student.